DIPOLOG TROPICAL FRUITS 3
 

Rambutan Orchard in Dapitan

9. Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) Though a close relative of the lychee and an  equally  desirable  fruit,  this  member  of  the  Sapindaceae.  In  the vernacular, it  is generally called rambutan (in French, ramboutan or ramboutanier; in Dutch, ramboetan); occasionally  in  India,  ramboostan. The rambutan is  native to Malaysia and commonly cultivated throughout the archipelago and southeast Asia. Many years ago, Arab traders introduced it into Zanzibar and Pemba. There are limited plantings in India, a few trees in Surinam,  and  in  the  coastal lowlands  of  Colombia,  Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Trinidad  and  Cuba. Some  fruits are being  marketed in  Costa Rica. The rambutan was taken to the Philippines from Indonesia in 1912. Further introductions were made in 1920 (from Indonesia)  and  1930  (from Malaya), but until the 1950's its distribution was rather limited. Then  popular demand brought about systematic efforts to  improve  the crop and resulted  in  the  establishment  of  many  commercial  plantations  in  the provinces  of Batangas, Cavite, Davao, Iloilo, Laguna, Oriental Mindoro and Zamboanga.

10. Chicos (Pouteria sapota) (Sapote)The word "sapote" is believed to have been derived from the Aztec "tzapotl", a general term applied to all soft, sweet fruits. Alternate vernacular names include sapota, zapote, zapote colorado, zapote mamey, lava-zapote, zapotillo, mamey sapote, mamee sapote, mamee zapote, mamey colorado, mamey rojo, mammee or mammee apple or red sapote. The sapote occurs naturally at low elevations from  southern  Mexico  to  northern  Nicaragua.  It is much cultivated  and  possibly also naturalized  up  to  2,000 ft  (600 m)   and  occasionally  found  up  to  5,000 ft (1,500 m) throughout Central  America  and tropical South America. It is abundant in Guatemala. In the West Indies, it is planted to a  limited  extent  from Trinidad  to  Guadeloupe,  and  in Puerto  Rico,  Haiti  and  Jamaica, but  mainly in Cuba where it  is  often grown  in  home gardens and along streets and for shading coffee because it loses its leaves at the period when coffee plants need sun, and the fruit is extremely popular. It was introduced into the Philippines by the early Spaniards but is grown only around Cavite and Laguna on Luzon and  Zamboanga on Mindanao. 

11. Toesa (tisa) (Pouteria campechiana Baehni) has been the subject of much botanical confusion as is evidenced by its many synonyms: P. campechiana var. nervosa Baehni;  P. campechiana  var. palmeri Baehni.  The canistel  is  sometimes  erroneously recorded  as native to northern South  America where related, somewhat similar  species are indigenous.  Apparently,  it occurs wild only in southern Mexico  (including Yucatan), Belize,  Guatemala  and El Salvador.  Seeds from Cuba  were planted  at  the  Lancetilla Experimental Garden, La Lima, Honduras, in 1927. Dr. Victor M. Patiflo bought fruits in a Cuban  market in  1957 and had the seeds planted at the Estacion Agricola Experimental de Palmira, Colombia. He reported that several trees were growing well there in 1963. The canistel is included  in experimental collections in Venezuela. The tree was introduced at low and medium elevations in the Philippines before 1924 and it reached Hawaii  probably around the same time.

12. Lomboy (Syzygium cumini) (jambolan)This member of the Myrtaceae is of wider interest for its medicinal applications than for its edible fruit.The jambolan is native in  India, Burma, Ceylon and  the  Andaman Islands. It was long ago introduced into and became naturalized in Malaya. In southern Asia, the tree is venerated by Buddhists, and it is commonly plante  near  Hindu temples because it is considered sacred to  Krishna. The tree is thought to be of prehistoric introduction into the Philippines where it is widely planted and naturalized, as it is in Java and elsewhere in the East Indies.

13. Lubi (Cocos nucifera) (coconut) Edible fruit of the coco palm tree of the Palm family, widely distributed throughout the tropics. The coco palm, which grows to a height of 60 to 100 ft (18 to 30 m) and has a crown of frondlike leaves, is one of the most useful trees  in  existence.  It is a source of timber, and  its  leaves are used in baskets and for thatch.  The coconut itself is a single- seeded  nut with a hard, woody shell encased in a thick, fibrous husk. The hollow nut contains coconut milk, a nutritious drink, and its white kernel,  a  staple food  in  the  tropics, is  eaten raw and cooked.  Commercially valuable coconut  oil is  extracted from the dried kernels, called copra, and the residue is used for fodder. 

14. Kamansi (Artocarpus altilis)  (Breadfruit)  One of the great food producers in its realm and widely known, at least by name, through its romanticized  and dramatized history, the breadfruit,  belongs  to the mulberry family, Moraceae. The common name is almost  universal, in  English, or tanslated into Spanish as fruta de pan. The breadfruit is believed to be native to a vast area extending from New Guinea through the Indo-Malayan Archipelago to Western Micronesia.

15. CacaoTheobroma .cacao)  Belong to the family Sterculiaceae  (cocoa) It was first cultivated in South America, introduced into Europe during the 16th century and today grown chiefly in western Africa. The average cacao tree attains a height of about 20 feet, has shiny leaves as long as 12 inches and small pink flowers on the trunk and older branches. Only about 30 of the 6000 annual blossoms eventually bear seeds. Commonly called cocoa beans, the seeds are surrounded by a yellow or reddish-brown pod up to 12 inches long. Cocoa beans are either purple or off-white and resemble almonds.

16. Kasoy (Anacardium Occidentale) Anacardiaceae family Cashew is an evergreen tree native to Brazil. It produces a bat-dispersed, edible red or yellow false pedicel fruit (the 'cashew apple'), below which is attached the true shell-fruit in which the cashew nut is located. The nuts must be roasted to burn off a toxic protective oil before they can be eaten. Cashew production centers in East Africa, Madagascar, India, and Brazil. .Kidney shaped nut, tan in color, 1.5 inches long, fleshy fruit, bell shaped, 2-3 inches long, yellow-red in color.

17. Rubber Tree Havea Brasilienses Euphorbiaceae family Rubber trees are native to the tropical Americas. They are naturally insect-pollinated, but are not obligate outcrossers. The latex-containing sap is thought to be a defense against pathogenic insects. The latex is processed into rubber by heating it with molten sulfur, a process known as vulcanization. One of the great economic coups of the Industrial Age was the 1876 collection by Sir Henry Wickham of 70,000 Brazilian Hevea brasiliensis seeds. These were taken back to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, germinated into seedlings, and subsequently shipped to the East Indies, where they began the great rubber plantations that by the start of World War I had supplanted Brazil as the world's leading source of rubber.

18. Biasong Citrus hystrix L  family Rutaceae  common name Kaffir lime, Ichang lime, Makrut, Djeruk purut.  Fruit up to 2 in. wide, nearly spherical, skin yellow-brown to yellow-green and very wrinkled. Leaf and expanded petiole appear to be a single "pinched" leaf, up to 6 in. long and 2 in. wide, dark green on top, lighter on the bottom, very fragrant. It is the pungent leaves and not the fruit of this species that is commonly used in Thai and Indonesian cooking. In some places the fruit is used to make a shampoo that is insect repelling.

19. Honeydew Melon, Cucumis melo, a plant of the family Curcurbitaceae native to Asia and now cultivated extensively in warm regions. There are many varieties, differing in taste, color, and skin texture—e.g., Persian, honeydew, casaba, muskmelon, and cantaloupe. The true cantaloupe (var. cantalupensis), introduced to Cantalupo, Italy, from Armenia, is a hard-shelled or rock melon. It is little grown outside the Mediterranean countries; the cantaloupes of the United States are varieties of the muskmelon. Melon is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Violales, family Curcurbitaceae.